During the mid-1600s, the French were experiencing difficulties on the North American continent. Not only were they submitted to murderous raids from the Iroquois since 1658 but they were also the only Europeans left who challenged the English for the East Coast of North America. In 1655, the Dutch had seized New Sweden, founded in Delaware in 1635, but in 1664 they had ceded New Holland, established in 1623 in the current state of New York, to the English.

To assist the colonists of New France in their struggle with the Iroquois and to contain the English, the King of France dispatched the first French regular troops to Canada, the Carignan-Salières Regiment. Some 1200 soldiers and their officers arrived in Quebec between June and September 1665, under the leadership of Colonel Henri de Chastelard, Sieur de Salieres who served under Lt. General Alexander de Prouville, Sieur de Tracy.

The Regiment established a series of forts along the Richelieu River to block the traditional invasion route into Canada. The Regiment also launched campaigns directly into the land of the Mohawk Indians, which ultimately led to a long period of peace for the colony, which permitted it to prosper.

When the Carignan Regiment returned to France, over 450 of these troops remained in the colony, many of whom married the newly arrived filles du roi.

Two of our ancestors were amongst the troops of the Carignan-Salières Regiment – Antoine Roy dit Desjardins and Jean Soucy dit Lavigne. Antoine was in the Froment Company and Jean in the Grandfontaine Company. Both of these ancestors remained in Canada when the Carignan Regiment was disbanded two years after its arrival and both were married to one of the King’s Daughters (filles du roi).

Roy, Antoine (Desjardins), (6)

Antoine Roy, son of Olivier Roy, a cooper, and Catherine Baudard, came from Burgundy. A few years after the death of his parents, Antoine left for New France. Were his wife and two children also dead, which would have left him free to pursue a new life on a new continent. It is within this army troop that Antoine found his way to Canada, as a simple soldier in the company commanded by Captain Froment.

This young soldier with the military surname of Desjardins left the port of La Rochelle on 19 April 1665 on board the sail ship Le Vieux Siméon. Two months later on 19 June 1665, he landed on the quays of the City of Quebec. He was part of the advance party for the regiment expedited by the king that included the four companies under captains Chambly, Froment, La Tour, and Petit. While waiting the arrival of the remaining twenty companies of the regiment, the freshly disembarked troops left Quebec on 23 July 1665 for the foot of the rapids on the Richelieu River near Montreal. There with the other soldiers that made up the advance party, Antoine Roy helped construct a wooden fort named Fort Saint Louis. Two other forts were also raised in the region, facing the English and their allies the Iroquois -- Fort Richelieu and Fort Sainte Thérèse.

After the arrival of the rest of the troops, the 24 companies of the regiment were posted to several locations in Canada. Eight companies were garrisoned in Quebec, one at Sainte Famille on l'Ile d'Orleans, three at Trois Rivières, five at Montreal, two at Fort Saint Louis, two at Fort Richelieu, and three at Fort Sainte Thérèse. The company to which Antoine Roy belonged was posted to Trois Rivières, where it remained for two years from the fall of 1665 to the summer of 1667.

As soon as peace between the French and Iroquois was settled on 8 July 1667 at Quebec City, the Carignan-Salières Regiment was recalled to France. Its presence in North America was no longer required since the Iroquois had been pacified and the Algonquins were allies. Both Indian nations formed a protective barrier between the French colony in Canada and the various English establishments further south. On 28 August 1667, the expeditionary force left the port of Quebec on board the Saint Sébastien bound for France. Of the 1200 soldiers who had come in 1665 to fight the Iroquois, only 550 returned to their native country. 250 had died during the French Indian wars, and 400 others decided to remain in Canada. Antoine was among those that remained along the Saint Lawrence River.

Antoine obtained a land concession from the Jesuits of Batiscan in 1667. The following year he married Marie Major, one of the King’s Daughters (fille du roi), the daughter of Jean Major who had been the receiver for the Baron of Hanqueville-en-Vexin and Marguerite Le Pelé. Marie was orphaned from both parents and brought goods estimated at 300 pounds value to the marriage. Antoine on the other hand contributed 100 pounds, his allocation as an ex soldier.

The Roy/Major couple only had one son, Pierre who in 1691 married Marie Anne Martin, the daughter of Joachim Martin and Anne Charlotte Petit. Pierre had 10 children with his first wife, Marie Anne Martin, 6 children with his second wife, Angelique Hautin, and 3 children with his third wife, Marie Delugré.

Soucy, Jean (Lavigne),(7)

Jean Soucy dit Lavigne came to New France in 1665 as part of the Carignan Regiment.

On 6 October 1669, he married Madeleine Maréchal and 7 days later annulled the marriage contract. She remarried Pierre Poupardeau. A couple years later before 1671, Jean married one of the King’s Daughters, Jeanne Sauvenier or Savonet. She was the daughter of Jacques Savonet and Antoinette Babillotte of Paris. In 1669, Jean was working for Pierre Bécart, seigneur a lîle aux Grues. It is most likely from him that he obtain a land concession on l’Île aux Oies where he built his house in 1674.

Jean and Jeanne Soucy had four children:

Anne born on 5 September 1671 at l’Île aux Oies

Pierre born on 13 April 1673

Marie Anne born on 15 February 1675 at l’Île aux Oies

Guillaume born on 5 April 1677

Jean died around 1678 leaving Jeanne with four young children. She remarried Damien Bérubé at l’Islet on Aug. 22, 1679 and had 7 additional children.

On 13 January 1699, Pierre, the oldest boy, married Elisabeth Ursule Fouquereau, daughter of Urbain Fouquereau and Jeanne Rossignol. They had a dozen children who have contributed to perpetuating the Soucy line in Canada and the United States.

Jeanne Savonnet or Sauvenier, never knew her father. Her mother Antoinette Babillette also abandoned her to public charity due to lack of funds and means of sustaining her.

Jeanne was first the wife of Jean Soucy dit Lavigne, a farmer on l’Île aux Oies, then the wife of Damien Bérubé, a mason at l’Islet, and finally she was Madamme François Miville dit LeSuisse, a miller and seigneur of Rivière Ouelle.

References

The Good Regiment, by Jack Verney, McGill-Queens University Press, 1991, Montreal and Kingston.